Part of the Fontbonne Table

 If you guessed a wedding for the big event we went to a few weeks ago, congratulations, you win!  That Thursday we woke up early, packed up the car, dropped Ollie off at my parents for a big sleepover, then got on the road to Chicago.  Ethan was invited to be a groomsman at his old college friend, Kyle's, wedding so we wanted to get there a day before all the festivities began to pick up his suit, get situated, and ensure time for travel snafus.

We also wanted to meet up with Andrew and Juliana, which we did that evening!  They picked a cool pizza-brewery hybrid, where we ate, drank, and merrily talked for a couple hours before closing the place down.

The following day was a lazy one before getting ready for the rehearsal dinner.  The venue was a short ten minute drive from the hotel.  When we arrived, the overly-enthusiastic priest lined everybody up to commence the walk-through.  Ethan's bridesmaid couldn't make it so I ended up standing in for her.  We were the best at walking in, for sure.

Once the priest was satisfied with all things ceremony, everyone made their way downstairs to a pizza restaurant for dinner, drinks, and toasts.  The Fontbonne table was quite fun, with the girls and guys telling stories and reminiscing.  It's a little strange being the only one who didn't go to college with all of them, but it's also quite fun to ask all the questions and hear all the stories.

On the big wedding day I dropped Ethan and the guys off at the venue around 1, picked up some lunch on the way back, and had a leisurely afternoon to myself before starting to get dressed.  Weddings are really the only time I get to go a little extra with makeup and a fancy hairdo, so I made a little cocktail, turned on some music, and had a grand old time.

The ceremony was nice.  The preacher threw in most of the same jokes he said the night before, but he told the story of how Kyle and McKenna met, when they knew they wanted to marry each other, and how he proposed.  Their vows were earnest and personalized, some funny and some serious, and they both looked radiantly happy.  Once the I Do's were said, the entire party moved down the hall for a cocktail hour.

A delicious three course dinner was next, complete with the grand wedding party entrance to music and several champagne toasts.  Once the dance floor opened up, that's all we did for the remainder of the evening.  Back at the hotel, everyone met up in the lobby (pre-approved by the staff, of course) to continue celebrating.  We left around 3:30am, even though the party was still raging.  They must've been up 'til the sunrise!

Overall it was a lovely event filled with so much fun and happiness.  Congrats to the new Mr. and Mrs!

(photos by r.hunt, a.hunt, e.hunt, and collected from bellesandthistles)

Storming the Corner

 Happy April, my good blog readers!  I hope you all had a lovely start to this month of springtime and optimistic weather.  We rang in the weekend with a rainstorm, resulting in lost power for about an hour and our neighbor's yard littered with large fallen tree limbs, but overall it wasn't near as bad as the hail and tornados they were predicting.

The rest of the weekend was quite balmy, so much so that we all got well over our ten thousand steps due to all the Ollie walks.  She is happy almost all of the time, but especially when we are outside on walks.

(photos by e.hunt)

Diplomats, Delegates, and Dignitaries

 And here's a little preview of what we did this weekend!  Can you guess what kind of event we were at? 

(photo by a fellow event attendee)

A Better Than Chance Guess

 Time for another Photos From Years Past!  I didn't take that many photos during the month of March, 2022, but among the few were these gems.

Like this current month, we had some nicer, warmer days thrown in with the rain and cold, and we took advantage by going on many walks.

A little volcano/Alien/kicking goat/rooster latte art.

And a regular at my old Starbucks gave me a couple last minute Blues tickets that Ethan and I enjoyed before he successfully defended his dissertation the following day.  We didn't stay for the entire game but we did catch a pair of dueling Zamboni!  A little fun fact, according to the Proper Use of the Zamboni Trademarks Letter 2010, "The name must be capitalized and spelled correctly and should never even remotely be used in a generic sense.  Never use "Zamboni" as a verb or in the plural, such as "Zambonis."  Therefore, dueling Zamboni, not Zambonis!

(photos by e.hunt)

You See These Lights are Blue

 We've made it one week since this year's Oscars, did any of you happen to tune in?  I only saw two of the movies nominated, well, one and two thirds.  I had to turn off Elvis because it was so bad, and Avatar was my first movie theater experience since before Covid.

Anyway, that's not really why I watched it.  The real reason is of course, the fashion!

I wasn't overly impressed with this year's selections, most being your standard Red Carpet fare, even though they went with a champagne carpet, instead.  You'd think with an update like that our celebrities would have thought a little more outside of the box.  Oh well.

I really liked these three cream to white dresses on Zoe Saldana, Halle Berry, and Tems.  I love a good, lacey slip dress, the flower details on Berry's dress make it much more interesting, and the sculptural quality of Tems' dress is quite refreshing.

These two-tone color dresses stood out as well on Monica Barbaro and Fan Bingbing.  The light and dark pairing for each is exquisite and dramatic, while also bringing some much-needed cheekiness to the affair.

But none of these compare to the detailed beauty Kartiki Gonsalves wore.  It's a map, a story, a pictorial explosion of color and light!  And she looks fabulous in it.

I actually started following the designer, Rahul Mishra, about a year ago on Instagram, and every single piece is this stunning.  The amount of work required for each must be astounding, as they are all handmade.  With collection names like The Enchanted Garden, The Tree of Life, and Cosmos, you really see his reverence towards nature and the beauty that surrounds us.  If you have some time, his Instagram page is worth a perusing.  I mean, these images below are just a hint at what's on the page!

(photos collected from Celebmafia, justjared, Vogue, etonline, celebmafia, reddit, and instagram)

Good Golly, Little Ollie

The little dinosaur turned one year old about a week ago, so happy late birthday, Ollie!  She continues to be a clumsy, energetic, cuddly goofball who alerts us by loudly bark-howling whenever one of the surrounding houses has a package delivered, demands her mid-morning bone every day before Ethan goes to work, and crosses her paws when napping.  She has been such a joyful addition to our lives.  It's been hard too, but there's nothing quite like coming home to her little wiggles, hops, and tail whipping around like a windmill.  Bark!

(photos by e.hunt)

A Floral Oracle

 Good evening and happy first day of March! I don't know about where all of you are located, but around here it's already looking quite spring-like.

I spotted a couple of these delicate pink-bloomed trees on my walk with Ollie this morning.  I looked them up and I think they're called Eastern Redbuds, or Cercis Canadensis.  They have a 'Least Concern' Conservation Status, the flowers can be eaten fresh, fried, or boiled, and they are the state tree of Oklahoma.

And when we got home I noticed that the white and yellow daffodils are also awake!  Also known as Narcissus, they come in many colors but are characterized by their unique trumpet shape.  Don't try to eat these though, as all parts of the plant are poisonous.  

And thus ends my first foray into flowering factoids.  Now go forth and spread these precious petals of wisdom, and may this month of March bring us more flowers and flowering trees to discover!

(photos by e.hunt)